disagreeing on the line

cowbyfan1 · #1 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 14, 2004, 04:57am

This was touched on in another post and I had it this past weekend.

Team B jumps, then team A jumps. One wing says B got in the NZ first. The other says A jumped before B got in. I, from the WH, saw B jump but was not sure if they were in the NZ when A jumped.

How would you handle it? I put it against B because they did jump first but I am not sure I got it right. Coaches (of B of course) felt it should have been double fouls.

Deep · #2 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 14, 2004, 07:19am

I would give more weight to the wing whose side of the line the encroachment occurred on. If they are hustling in and filtering things through the Umpire, they really ought to be able to figure it out themselves.

And while it is important to get the call right, when watching a game or working deep, I have never been able to figure out why this decision should take an extended amount of time. I've been in games when it seems like the wing guys' decision took 5 minutes. Again, it's important to be fair and right, and I'm not advocating rushing your decision, but come on, it's a 5 yarder. Taking several minutes for such a decision makes you look weak and indecisive. When I work the wings, I can't ever recall taking more than 10-15 seconds to hash this out with my partners.

Ed Hickland · #3 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 14, 2004, 07:53am

Since you saw B jump and the one official said it was a NZ violation, I would go with B for encroachment.

The way I like to handle it as the WH is let the two wings conference without me. If they cannot come to a conclusion that is when I make the decision.

Snake~eyes · #4 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 14, 2004, 11:16am

I agree, you or the umpire can't really help make a decision because yes B jumped but did they cross the neutral zone before A jumped. Let the two wings sort it out and come up with a decision, if they can't decide then take the official whos side it was on. This can be covered in pregame.

ljudge · #5 (**permalink**) Tue Sep 14, 2004, 11:27am

Our president says "never, never, never, never, never guess." If you as the WH need to decide who was right and who was wrong you're basically guessing and you're fishing in your wings pond. What if you get this wrong? You're enforcing a guess. Wouldn't it make more (common) sense to tell the coach you couldn't determine who was first, and therefore, not mark off anything? It's the lesser of 2 evils and it's being honest.

Then, have a talk with your wings offline about getting on the same page.

cowbyfan1 · #6 (**permalink**) Wed Sep 15, 2004, 02:41am

I would not call it being not on the same page, especially when the A player jumped on the HL side of the line and the B player that jumped was on the LJ's side of the line. Just the depth perception and the fact the when you see "your" player move you may not see what is happening on the other side of the line.